No Stupid Questions

Where I live, transit is just not good enough to rely on. I use it occasionally to get to some bars and back but even then the route I use for that stops running at like 9:30 PM so there's not really an option to stay out very late. And this tie runs on one of the busiest corridors in my city. I would definitely use transit much more if it had better levels of service.

I'm live on rural area on some third world country. Public transport's schedule is random or non-existent for us, it is the norm to wait between 15 minutes to 1 hour for a public transport car to pick us. That is why we usually use our own vehicle to commute.

1. Most cities don't have adequate public transit. They'll put in a couple of buses and 1 rail line and be like "Public transit doesn't work, it costs millions of dollars and no one uses it!" without considering that people don't use it because it doesn't take them where they need to go. If it can't replace their car or guarantee them faster transit to where they're going, then what's the point?

2. The auto industry has successfully created a culture of personal vehicles as a sort of status symbol. If you don't have a car, people assume you're poor. Same way people will shame you if don't take out a $20k loan to buy your fiancee a giant diamond to symbolize your love for them.

I have never liked cars, but I will admit there is something peaceful about driving by myself listening to music on days off with nowhere to be. The problem with cars for me is always the commute to work. I hate it with a passion, and in a lot of cities not having a car isn't really an option.

If you want to fly across the country you will pay about the same price as it is to drive for one person but arrive days earlier. If you take your spouse the flight just doubled in price but the car ride has stayed the same price. Take two kids or any friends and the flight price has quadrupled but the car ride is still the same price. Once you’re at your location if you flew you are now in a new city with all your luggage but no transportation. If you drove you are in charge door to door. Trying to get groceries for a family in any city in the U.S. and it’s way to long of a trip to do it daily and impractical to take a weeks worth of groceries on the bus. Outside of maybe New York City public transportation is a single man’s game.

Check out the episode Adam Ruins Cars from Adam Ruins Everything: Season 1, Episode 3. It's a sad history of why we are where we are.

We have very good public transport where I live, but it's so much easier to simply drive where you need to go instead of waiting at a bus stop for 15 minutes and then still need to walk for another 10 minutes to get where you needed to go. Yes, it's dumb and really bad for the environment, but it's easy. And more often than not, people prioritise stuff being easy rather than environmentally friendly.

In my country (Philippines), public transport is the worst. To go to work, I am forced to wake up early just to catch a ride. Then going back home, i have to stand outside for 1 or 2 hours just to get a ride. Plus another hour or two on the road. I hate driving here because the traffic sucks but at least I don't have to worry about getting stuck out there waiting to hitch a ride.

If public transport were good as Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan, I wouldn't own a car.

Convenience. Directness. I live in NYC in an outer borough. To get to the neighborhood next door it's a 45 minute series of bus rides with the wait or... A 5 minute drive.

Now add in I have a family and try to make a toddler wait for the bus and xfer just to get somewhere.

For me it is easy choice. By car i need 10 minutes from home to work, by bus i need about 60 minutes. So in one day i save about 100 minutes.

Speaking as someone who lives in the US, the reason why people “prefer” it is because it’s embedded into the culture that public transportation is for poor people- temporarily embarrassed millionaires and all that. And the reason for that cultural programming is because auto manufacturers and airlines have consistently lobbied against any improvements to public transportation from the very beginning, and even had a hand in specifically designing cities to require cars. China has bullet trains that could get us safely and comfortably from one side of the country to the other in 4 hours. Most EU countries have safe, cheap, accessible public transportation that EVERYONE uses.

At the end of the day, it’s just another capitalist ploy.

The majority of people who "prefer" cars are the people who have been brainwashed into thinking so by the advertising industry. The only way I would ever own a car again is if I was paid to do so... and they'd have to pay me a lot.